Background: When we began this project in 2011, Bruce shared with us a dream he has had since 1994 to introduce HAL within his other websites by 2001. No kidding! Though missing that goal, he said, “Some day we’ll implement speech recognition technology. Look how much smarter Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and Cortana have gotten in the past year. Instead of voice mail, calls will be transferred to an intelligent hub within our web site so natural language speech recognition programs can ask — How can we help you? — and guide our callers through the web site to get the information they need. If somebody wanted to leave a message, they would have that option, too.”

Even after all these years, he says, “I’ll just have to keep dreaming! I know it’s possible. All the tools are being used in various places on the web. It’s just a matter of money and time before it all comes together.”

The primitive technology has been on the market since about 1990, so it shouldn’t be too much longer before we implement a sophisticated tool. Until then, there is always snail mail, email, texting and social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Skype and FaceTime.